Mr Pig and Headwalking

Stuart was putting the washing out one day and Alice was being very "helpful" in trying to put them on the airer too. Well actually pull them off and hand them back to Stuart to put them back on again.
The tadpoles are now becoming froglets. Some have no tails and some have very small tails and some a bit longer like this. Pauline nearly mowed over one the other day, but she managed to avert a near disaster.




This pig does not belong to Alice it was bought for Stuart quite a few years ago. However, Alice really enjoys playing with him and today was even giving him a cuddle. Maybe she's going to be a puppeteer. Also this seems to be a progression from the headstands that she does. She bends over like this to get up from when she's sitting on the floor, but she decided to go for a "walk" like this instead.

Also it has been a lot of fun catching up with old friends this past week. If you want to see some very old photos of Pauline then go to Laura's blog. Hope you all enjoy reunion.

Remember me, Remember me.

A few of us from Belfast have been on a friend's blog remembering the great times we had as teenagers. People are coming out from the woodwork left, right and centre. It's been brilliant to remember those days. I have even found my diaries from 1984/85 and have been posting them on the blog. If you want to know what we got up to then go to Laura's blog. It might not make you laugh, but it certainly has been giving us a lot of entertainment this week. There are even some photos from those days.

Clayton Media

Our church, Jesmond Parish Church has set up an on-line Christian channel. Zoe Earnshaw has done a Masters degree in Media Studies and wanted to use it to create a media channel with Christian ethics. She is relying completely on donations to ensure the future of the channel. If you are interested in what goes on at our church the evening services are filmed every week and so you can catch some of the singing and the sermons. The website is:

http://www.clayton.tv

There are also other programmes to view, interviews and talks from around the world.

Nanny's visit

Pauline's mum came over this week for a visit to catch up with grandchild number 7. Alice enjoyed playing with the bubbles, sitting on Nanny's knee reading stories, doing "horsey horsey", playing football (Nanny was very impressed with Alice's dribbling skills, the ball that is not because she's teething) and generally being doted on.
We also took another trip to Alnwick Gardens. Pauline's mum generally comes over at Christmas when it's dark by about 3pm. So it was a treat to show Nanny some of the beauties this part of the country has to offer. We took a drive through Northumberland to keep Alice asleep and also show Nanny some of the stunning scenery.
Nanny, Pauline and Alice posing for a family portrait at Alnwick Gardens.
We also got Alice this wee kitchen. She follows Pauline around wanting up when she's trying to cook. So we thought getting this kitchen might help. However, Alice has had Nanny to entertain her this week, so we'll see how she goes with it next week. We got it through Freecycle. Don't know if you've heard of it, it's online and is all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. It's free to join up and you join a group in your local area. I was thinking about buying Alice a wee kitchen and then this came up and snapped it up. We also got rid of her old car seat and baby bath. You can't sell car seats on, in case they've been in a crash, so this was ideal. The car seat was as good as new and so it seemed a shame to just throw it in the dump. Really glad someone can use it instead.

We bought her this wee bubble machine. It was a bit windy when we used it, but she really enjoyed chasing the bubbles around and trying to burst them. No doubt much fun will be had on warm sunny days in the garden chasing bubbles.

Alice's corner

Alice spends a lot of her day in this corner. At the end of the day if we can't find a book or one of her blocks, it's generally behind the sofa, down in the corner or under the sofa. The corner is between the sofa and the window in the back room. She also hides behind the curtains or plays hide and seek, where she crawls down the side of the sofa and then crawls out and one of us shouts "boo" or "hiya". A good hidey hole.

We went to a farm on Monday and Alice really enjoyed looking at all the animals, especially the pigs. Then on Tuesday (as Stuart had a privilege day; civil servants get two extra bank holiday days a year) we went up to Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Gardens. Just beautiful, always a favourite of ours. This was Alice's first trip up. It's about a 45 min drive north of us and we put on her music CD and it kept her quiet the whole way up. She really enjoyed walking around the gardens at the top, looking at the water features (which are fab) and doing the maze. We didn't have time for the tree house or the woodland walk. Next time. Picture of Alice and Stuart looking at the pigs at the farm.